Cameras / Photos / Video
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The Issue: It’s common for people to compulsively and unthinkingly pull out their cell phone and fiddle with it at all times. If only there were some way to subtly discourage “snacking” on the Internet! Proposal: The solution is simple: every time you unlock your cell phone, it should display a yawning “groggy” face for…
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Background: “Doomscrolling” refers to the act of relentlessly scrolling through negative news online, often to the psychological detriment of the person scrolling. It may be surprising that a person would intentionally ingest distressing news, but consider that doom-adjacent news is more emotionally engaging than “normal” news: imagine the hypothetical article “Interest rates were raised by…
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Background: Birdwatching is a hobby that appeals to many completionists who enjoy trying to see every possible bird. The Issue: Unfortunately, many species of bird have gone extinct. Some notable examples: Fortunately, birdwatching as a hobby requires only two senses: sight and hearing. Most birdwatchers do not consider it to be strictly necessary to touch,…
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Background: In the early 2020s, the appeal of short (< 1 minute) videos became widespread, with TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and other services vying for market share. (Surprisingly, the earliest major entrant into this genre, Vine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine_(service)), completely failed and was shut down in 2017). The Issue: Unfortunately, the popularity of “bite-sized” videos has…
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Background: Thanks to modern technology, it’s possible for many meetings to be conducted over video chat. The Issue: Frequently, it’s not really necessary for a participant in a meeting to be paying attention: that person’s time could be better spent doing actual work, or writing emails. But it is important for the person to look…
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Background: It’s easily possible to receive an overwhelming number of phone notifications these days. Typically, this is a mix of emails, text messages, multiple messaging apps, and the occasional demanding apps spamming you with notifications that “you earned 10% off your next order!” The Issue: It’s possible to silence some of these alerts, but sometimes…
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Background: Futurists and sci-fi authors have suggested many technologies that took decades to become practical, but did eventually arrive, such as: The flat panel display Tablet computers Videophones Machine translation Computers that can defeat a human at go and chess Wristwatch phones (e.g. the “Dick Tracy” wristwatch two-way radio, later given video capabilities as well)…
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Background: People frequently listen to music during their day-to-day activities. In olden times, a person was limited to whatever was playing on the radio, but in the post-iPod world, it’s very straightforward to load up an entire day’s worth of personalized music ahead of time. However, such music can’t react to the events of the…
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Background: Video chat is now relatively widespread. Frequently, people on a chat will be muted and/or have their video off. The Issue: The terminology for “a person is muted” is straightforward: “muted.” However, English currently lacks short terms for “I am muted” versus “I have the audio turned off for the remote speaker.” Additionally, there…
WorstPlans: updated every Monday since July 2014! 